{"id":921965,"date":"2026-10-05T21:30:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-05T21:30:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/921965\/"},"modified":"2026-10-05T21:30:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-05T21:30:10","slug":"gauff-pulls-away-late-to-defeat-rising-sun-in-beijing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/921965\/","title":{"rendered":"Gauff pulls away late to defeat rising Sun in Beijing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Coco Gauff has typically had her way against younger players, and that trend continued Monday night in Beijing, though not without a fight. The World No. 4 pulled away late, winning nine of the final 10 games to beat 16-year-old Sun Xinran<\/a> 7-5, 6-1 in 1 hour, 29 minutes and advance to the Round of 16 for the fourth consecutive year.<\/p>\n

Beijing: Scores<\/a> | Order of play<\/a> | Draws<\/a><\/p>\n

Gauff has now won 24 of her 28 career matches at the WTA Tour Driven by Mercedes-Benz level against opponents younger. Her only loss to a teenager during that span came against eventual champion Victoria Mboko in Montreal in 2025.<\/p>\n

Returning to the Round of 16 \ud83d\udcaa @CocoGauff moves past Sun in straight sets and continues to push towards a place at WTA Finals Indian Wells! #ChinaOpen https:\/\/t.co\/Ksy9n9xbLI<\/p>\n

\u2014 wta (@WTA) October 5, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n

Despite the result, Gauff had nothing but praise for the young Chinese standout.<\/p>\n

“I think she’s a little bit more mature than I was at 16,” Gauff said in her post-match interview. “I think I got a little bit more frustrated than she did. But she’s an incredible player. I knew going in it was going to be a tough match. The junior career that she’s had is incredible, and obviously she’s going to do great at this level.<\/p>\n

“I think this is the first of many matches on this court and many matches that we will play against each other. I’m looking forward to the future matchups we have.”<\/p>\n

After Gauff and Sun traded six-minute service holds in the opening two games, Gauff struck first with a break at love for a 2-1 lead. Sun immediately answered with a break of her own to level at 2-2, then held for 3-2, helping set the tone for a fiercely contested opener.<\/p>\n

Stunning tennis from 16-year-old Xinran Sun \ud83c\udf1f #ChinaOpen https:\/\/t.co\/IixuNcnjG2<\/p>\n

\u2014 wta (@WTA) October 5, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n

A critical moment came with Gauff serving to stay in the first set at 5-4. Sun appeared to hit another winner for 15-30, but the side panels flickered during the rally, forcing the point to be replayed. Gauff took the next three points to hold for 5-all.<\/p>\n

A backhand return winner gave Gauff the break for 6-5 in the ensuing game, and she closed out the set after 58 minutes with a love hold.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Gauff carried that momentum into the second set, winning a fourth consecutive game to seize control of the match. Sun managed to break for 3-1, but Gauff responded by taking the final three games to secure the victory and continue her success on Chinese soil.<\/p>\n

Job done \u2705 @CocoGauff defeats Sun 7-5, 6-1 to book her place in the Round of 16 in Beijing! #ChinaOpen https:\/\/t.co\/9v2XIWbkLS<\/p>\n

\u2014 wta (@WTA) October 5, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n

Excluding team events, Gauff owns the highest career winning percentage at WTA-level tournaments in China this century, compiling a 24-3 record (88.9%).<\/p>\n

And, as has increasingly been the case in recent months, Gauff’s net play helped drive her success. She won 17 of 22 points at the net, compared with Sun’s 6 of 10 mark. She also posted a positive winners-to-unforced errors ratio, striking 26 winners against 21 unforced errors.<\/p>\n

Next up is No. 13 seed Elise Mertens, against whom Gauff owns a 5-0 career record, including a comeback victory in Dubai earlier this year.<\/p>\n

From three match points down, Gauff escapes Mertens to make Dubai quarters<\/p>\n

Before turning her attention to the next round, Gauff took one final moment to reflect on her latest opponent. She even offered a player comparison for Sun, who entered the week ranked No. 582 and earned her first Top 100 and Top 50 victory against Cristina Bucsa in the second round.<\/p>\n

“She doesn’t have any major weaknesses,” Gauff told reporters. “She can get a lot of balls back and play aggressive. She hits it real flat. Kind of reminds me of Jess [Pegula] a little bit. Her standout shot? I think it depends on the player. Today she was hitting her forehand line really well. Obviously she has a great backhand, too. Killed me on a couple backhand crosses.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Coco Gauff has typically had her way against younger players, and that trend continued Monday night in Beijing,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":921966,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[49,48,82,593,5452],"class_list":["post-921965","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports","tag-tennis","tag-text"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/921965","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=921965"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/921965\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/921966"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=921965"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=921965"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=921965"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}